


For the Clan

by shaniceisfalling



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cousins, F/M, Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-17 12:46:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12366087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaniceisfalling/pseuds/shaniceisfalling
Summary: In which Hinata has nightmares about the death of her family and inappropriate dreams about the Hyuga prodigy. Neji's obligations to the clan as a branch family member become confused. How far is he willing to go, and how much is Hinata willing to ask of him, for the clan?





	For the Clan

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. All characters belong to their respective owners and any alterations that I've made to the plot do not reflect the intentions or actions of the creator(s).

Hinata wasn't sure when the nightmares began. She just knew they were consistent, which was the only way anything ever appeared in the Hyuga clan. Strict. Orderly. Meticulous.

They hit every night like clockwork, and there was nothing that could stop them, but... There was something, someone, that made her feel better about them. And that was the closest to a cure that a person could get in this world, sometimes.

Neji Hyuga. Her cousin.

It should've began and ended there, right? Her cousin? _Her cousin_? Enough said. It was wrong in every way, but emotions are emotions and Hinata knew better than anyone else how easy it is to fall for a person.

Her three hundred year long crush on Naruto Uzumaki of all people was enough proof of how... consistent and unavoidable _her_ emotions specifically were. But it wasn't Naruto anymore. It was Neji, which somehow made it ten times worse. He was cold. As cold as her father and as rigid as him too. And he was mean.

But he could be soft sometimes too. Kind. Most notably when it came to the nightmares.

He didn’t coddle her or hold her. He didn't rock her to sleep with false premises or notions of, "It'll all be okay." Much less tell her anything crazy like he loved her. He just stayed with her.

And that was enough, because her father specifically told him that it was unnecessary to do so. She needed to grow up and be strong as the lady of the house. Handle her own problems. But Neji did it anyway, when she asked, when he didn’t have to, and that’s what made it matter. Because he didn’t have to.

Like now.

She climbed into her bed in her nightgown, just barely illuminated by candlelight. He stood by the door. She held her pillow close and laid down. Time passed.

Some people might think it would be awkward to lie there with someone watching you. In silence. With only the sound of your own breathing. It wasn’t though, because Neji didn’t watch her. He was just there if she needed him, like a safety blanket. His presence just made it better. Sleep started to take her like it always did. She wasn’t sure if he would be there when she woke up from the nightmares. But he made her less afraid to fall asleep regardless.

And sleep she did.

It was a two step process, really. The dream and then the nightmare. The dream was always different. The nightmare was the same. Darkness would swallow up the only world she had ever known. She would be able to see nothing. Hear nothing. Feel nothing. Even in the dream she was aware of her helplessness and she knew, undoubtedly, even though she could not perceive it, that those she loved were dying all around her as she stood there uselessly. Incapable of stopping it.

Naruto lie bleeding out on the floor. Neji beside her. Her father torn apart and his blood across her face. She could _smell_ it. That was all she could do.

But tonight the _dream_ was different.

Her breath caught in her throat as feather-like strands tickled her flushed skin. “Lady Hinata,” he whispered huskily above her. Her own pale eyes met his, and she knew that with his byakugan on, he could see her from every angle. Every crevice, fold, and inch of her skin was on full display. “Lady Hinata. It is my duty to serve you in every way that you need.”

She blushed. “B-But—” she gasped out when his lips descended on her neck, nipping at the heated flesh. “We’re cousins.”

“I cannot change my feelings for you. And what can’t be changed must be endured,” the familiar words slipped from his mouth, cradled in her skin. “We are who we are, Hinata, and we must live with it.”

Then suddenly she could no longer feel his hands or his breath. The streaks of his hair against her body. The heat at the meet between her thighs. She was dead to the world. Her senses rendered useless and the nightmare began.

She awakened with a start. Gasping, desperately needing air that she feared would never come.

\---

The next day, the events from the dream kept her from thinking clearly. She completely botched her training session. Couldn’t focus during the usual “political talks” of the village, and most of all, she couldn’t look Neji in the eyes.

He had taken to helping her train a little right before bed when he wasn’t out on missions. It calmed her nerves and had been very effective in upping her abilities. But she couldn’t focus. Even though his hair was tied back, she imagined it flowing down and touching her. His hands that were flying towards her only reminded her of the ones that had delicately fondled her in her own bed nonetheless. It was all she could do to barely dodge his attacks.

“Hinata, are you alright?” Neji stopped to ask. It was not at all compassionate. It was cold and to the point.

“H-Hai,” she muttered out, repositioning herself into a more solid stance. It was half-hearted.

He righted himself and took a step back. “I believe we’re done for the day.”

“No, I can…”

But he was already walking away.

This was the part where she would normally run up to him and tug on his sleeve. Quietly ask if it was alright if… if he could possibly… _just for a little bit_ stay with her tonight? It started as only once every few months. Then once every few days. Now she asked every night, but she hesitated today. Not because of the dream, but because dreams like that we’re becoming all she dreamed about, and it was wrong.

She recalled one particular session in which he had professed that their union would preserve the pure Hyuga bloodline. She couldn’t believe her own mind had conjured up such a thought.

Perhaps, it was time to let go of her safety blanket.

She didn’t know where she thought this was going after all. They couldn’t actually… it wasn’t going anywhere no matter how close they had recently gotten. She recalled how it was the same with Naruto, how the knuckle-headed ninja had gone from liking Sakura to Sasuke and finally to Gaara, his current (and most likely eternal) obsession. Now, she would have to go through the same process of letting go, this time with Neji.

Neji paused before he made it through the large sliding doors leading back inside the compound. He looked at her for just a moment before continuing on his way. For just a second he seemed as though he were waiting for something.

\---

He came to her that night regardless, lightly tapping on her door. She opened it with the intention of sending him off, but she didn’t have the heart to.

She crawled into bed, discomforted by his once comforting presence.

“Are you alright, Hinata?” Neji asked again in the same straight to the point manner.

“Yes, I… I…” She sighed, nodding. “Yes, I’m alright.” But she was anything but. She fell into a fitful stupor. Incapable of actually falling asleep.

It was about time for Neji to leave, and if she had been asleep, it would be about time for the nightmares to come. But she was not asleep. She was only tossing and turning restlessly. “I’m sorry,” she choked out. “I don’t know what’s wrong. This is probably inconvenient for you, isn’t it?”

“It's my job to assist you, Lady Hinata,” he said.

And she hated how he said it, like it was everything she had hoped he felt it wasn’t. An obligation. A task. Another job for the branch family. She had hoped he did it because he wanted to, even though she knew that couldn’t be the case.

“It is not inconvenient,” he continued, “But if I stay any longer it would be inappropriate.”

“I understand,” she muttered into her pillow. “It should only take a bit longer.”

He sighed. “I meant that I have to go now,” he clarified.

She blushed, embarrassed. She never wanted to ask too much of him, and she had. She always knew one day he would say enough is enough. She nodded, stiffly. “I understand.”

“Good night, Lady Hinata,” he said as she heard the sliding door open.

“Neji?” she asked.

He sighed, once again having to stop. “Yes?”

“You don’t have to come anymore,” she hoped to God he couldn’t hear the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Is that what you want?” he asked with that same cold, to the point, doctor-like speech.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“As you wish, then,” he closed the sliding door.

\---

His team was here the next week, in _their_ home. Which wasn’t that rare of an occurrence, what with them always inviting themselves. And it wasn’t a bad thing necessarily. But it was _her_.

_Tenten_.

Always just touching him for no reason. She would pat his shoulder, and give his arm a nudge, and laugh. Laughing all the time for what? What is so funny? This place is boring, besides Gai and Lee’s antics. And that wasn’t a bad thing. Hinata was used to the calm, and the cold, and the structure.

She was used to the Hyuga way and clearly Tenten was not. She would’ve thought that would be enough of a reason for Neji to hate the girl, but he was her teammate, and the ease at which they drifted towards each other was evident.

Hinata wanted to tell Neji how inappropriate Tenten would be for him, but it wasn’t her place to tell him what to do with his life. It could only ever come out as an order, because they weren’t close enough to even talk about anything, let alone give advice, especially not the romantic kind.

“What are you glaring so hard at?” Kiba asked, throwing an arm over Hinata’s shoulder.

She blushed at being caught in the act of jealousy, over her cousin no less. She shook her head. “N-Nothing.”

He raised an eyebrow that was a little too suggestive. “Oh really?”

“Yes, really,” she sighed, nudging him in the side.

He laughed until he met Hiashi Hyuga’s eyes. Then he removed his arm at once. Neji was looking at him with a very similar expression.

Poor Kiba. In the lion’s den.

“Hey, Hinata, you wanna get back to training?” Kiba scratched the back of his neck.

“Oh, of course.” She smiled at him, then Shino, but despite trying her best during training and _succeeding_ , she couldn’t keep _them_ out of her peripheral. Damn the byakugan, but she could see every move that girl was making towards her cousin. It set her blood boiling, which she felt was so unlike herself. But she was enraged all the same.

When it was time for everyone to leave, she heard it. That girl asking _her_ Neji—she meant that as _her_ cousin of course—if he’d like to do some “personal training lessons” (whatever that meant) anytime this weekend?

Hinata had to stop herself from pulling her own hair out. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing until Neji himself agreed!

Kiba’s loud laughter broke through the entire complex.

“What are you laughing at?” Shino asked.

“Who else?” He grinned from ear to ear, his eyes narrowing. “I’ll tell you later. It’s hilarious.”

Kiba made eye contact with Hinata.

She blushed, and resisted the urge to make it any worse by attacking him. Not that she actually would, but she wanted to. “Kiba…” she whisper-screamed.

“Tell me how this all ends, okay? I hate that I have to miss any of it.” And on that note he left, but not without gaining some more glances from the head of the household and the clan’s prodigy.

\---

Neji hadn’t attempted to come to her any night that week, just as she had asked. And their training sessions had all but disintegrated. At first she was grateful. In fact, any time he had tried to interact with her, even a passing glance, she would wonder what he could possibly want while she was still desperately trying to get over him. But then the gratitude wore off and she missed him terribly.

She knew she would miss him even more on the days to come because he would be going off on a long mission the following night. He could be away for weeks, and she regretted the lack of interaction they had during this one. What if something happened? What if he died, or worse, came back engaged to that girl? It was highly unlikely but completely plausible. It was at that moment that the thought came to her that she realized she needed to talk to him.

She would wonder what if until the day she died, and any day could be the last, hers or his. She had a chance right now to do something that could bring her peace. Maybe not the outcome she wanted, but closure all the same.

She followed her hazy memory to the location she knew his room to be. It was like following directions you had memorized but never actually followed yourself. Reciting a recipe you had never cooked. It was familiar and foreign all at the same time. She stood outside the door to the room of the man she loved, the room she had never gone inside or been invited to for obvious reasons. But it bothered her all the same, for some reason.

She wondered if Tenten had ever been in it. She knocked lightly on the frame.

When there wasn’t an immediate response, she considered running, but then the door slipped open.

Her heart caught in her throat.

“Yes?” he asked looking up, but then his eyes trailed down towards her. He raised an eyebrow for just a moment, before his expression returned to normal. “Are you alright, Lady Hinata?” he asked in the tone he always used. Cold.

“Yes, thank you. I… I-I just came to… M-Maybe we could talk?” Her timid eyes took all of him in.

He was in casual, night attire. He looked like he might've just gotten out of the shower and was preparing to go to sleep. His hair was loose, so unlike how he usually presented himself, and… her eyes widened. His forehead was bare. She realized then that she was on the branch side of the compound. Maybe he didn’t feel the need to hide it over here… away from her.

He looked to the side, his hair following the motion, making the mark harder to see. “Is it something that can wait until morning?” He reached for the door.

She blushed. She had made him uncomfortable no doubt. She didn’t mean to do that. “Yes. Of course.” She went to step away, give him his space. Then she hesitated. She opened her mouth, closed it. Pursed her lips. “Actually, no. It can’t.”

He straightened. “Alright then.”

She was already losing her nerve, but she tried to stay strong. “If you want to cover it... I can wait,” she offered.

His grip on the door tightened. “Thanks for the courtesy, but I’m fine." Before she could even say okay, he added, "I don’t hide it. It just happens to be in the place where a forehead protector is meant to go.”

She flinched. The way he said it alone was enough of an indicator that he was lying, even if he wasn’t doing so consciously. She sighed. Perhaps this _could_ wait until the morning. She nodded to herself in resolution. She was only making things worse right now. “I just wanted to wish you good luck and safe travels Neji... P-Please return safely from your trip. Good night.” Her voice got quieter and quieter the more she spoke.

“Was that all you had to say?” he asked.

She nodded.

She expected him to close the door then, but he didn’t. Then she expected him to do it in the next moment, but still, he didn't.

She looked down the hall, ready to go, but... the way he was looking at her… “Neji?”

“Yes, Lady Hinata?” he asked.

“Is there s-something that… Maybe there’s something you want to say too?” she asked.

He looked at her with an almost bored expression. She didn’t know what she had done to invoke such rage from him, but she could only bite her lip and hope that he would just say ' _no'_ over the alternative, yelling at her like he always used to in their darker days. Talking to her this way and that. Telling her, her place.

But that’s probably what he felt like she was doing, with her looking at his mark—telling him his place. She had probably gone and made him uncomfortable, but that's not what she intended. To her, that wasn’t his place at all—in servitude of her. To her, he deserved the world. _He_ should be the one taking over the Hyuga line, not her. She hoped he knew that’s what she thought of him. But that didn’t answer her real question tonight: what he thought of her.

“Your father is displeased,” Neji said suddenly.

“...I’m sorry?” she asked.

“It is understandable that as the lady of the house you would eventually need a suitor to ensure a subsequent heir, but a member of the Inuzuka Clan, which does not have any vision-based kekkei genkai, let alone someone out of the family—”

“T-There’s nothing wrong with Kiba,” Hinata whisper-screamed. She thought he had wanted to say… but he just wanted to complain about her partner? Who she didn’t even like, like that? Kiba was with Shino for goodness sake! Not that, that was her business to disclose.

“ _Lady Hinata_.” Neji scowled.

“You have no right to insult my teammate or my choices. Especially given the circumstances. Have a nice t-trip with Tenten. Goodnight!” She went to close the sliding door, blushing like mad.

Neji blocked the door. “Excuse me?”

Naturally what she had said was nothing the Hyuga girl wanted to repeat. She already cursed herself for what she had allowed to slip from her mouth. She looked to the floor, incapable of making eye contact with him.

“Do you have an issue with Tenten?”

“N-No, I just… I…” Hinata looked up at him and her breath caught in her throat. Like it always did. Because he was beautiful.

It might sound like a stupid thing to say, or to point out at a time like this, but everything about Neji was beautiful. His silky hair and velvety skin that she had, had the pleasure of touching occasionally between a sparring session or two. On _accident_ of course. His liquid eyes that she could look into forever, and those lips. Those hands. Those hips and that shoulder line that had all been the sources of her fantasies for months. Years. What felt like decades. She had always looked at him, even when they were young, albeit in a different way.

She had always wanted to be as strong as him. Admired him, but now she knew that it wasn’t all just admiration.

It was want as well. Desire.

And that Tenten had no right to touch what was hers.

Neji was a member of the branch family. He was the member meant to protect her. Serve her. And she would never want to use that against him, but God, he was supposed to be hers.

Tears started welling up in her eyes. Neji looked taken aback.

“She has no right,” Hinata choked out. “You made a vow to me.”

“Lady Hinata,” Neji moved closer.

She shook her head. “Don’t call me lady. Why can’t you be normal with me, like you are with her?" she asked. "I thought we were getting closer.”

“I don’t understand what’s upsetting you. Perhaps, If you could clarify—”

“You cannot go with her tomorrow. I forbid it,” she cried out.

“Hinata…” he moved back into the room gesturing for her to follow him.

It took some time, but when she decided against sobbing out in the open, and potentially gaining an audience for her outburst, she obliged and he closed the sliding door behind her.

“Tell me what is wrong. Immediately,” he commanded.

She moved closer to him, hesitantly. She could feel his hair touch her face for the first time outside of her dreams. He went to move back, but when she looked into his eyes, he stopped.

She didn’t know what it was in her look that made him stop, but he did, and she continued. Closer and closer until she felt his strong chest against her. She needed him to hold her and to tell her that it would be okay. What “it” was she didn’t know, but she needed him. She needed him right now. She wrapped her arms around him, but his arms stayed stock still at his side. He didn’t dare to move. He probably didn’t want to be touching her in the first place.

Her heart sank at that thought, but it was too late to stop now. It was time to tell him and be done with it. She had to. She couldn’t sleep from the what ifs and maybes. Even if it ruined everything, she had to just tell him how he made her feel. Love was weird in that way. It demanded too much.

“Neji?” she asked, quietly.

“Yes, La… Yes, Hinata?”

She couldn’t resist smiling at the correction. It sounded nice. Just Hinata. She wanted him to see her that way. Not as a familial obligation or as an extension of an authority he had to obey. And yet, it was that same authority she tried to invoke to keep him away from Tenten. She looked up at his forehead and the curse mark. Everything was so confusing.

His hand followed her eyes, resting on the seal.

“I think I love you, Neji,” she whispered, even though she knew she might be ruining her own life, as well as his, and her father? God, if he knew. If he found out. If Neji told him. The clan!

“I love you, too, Hinata,” he dropped his hand back to his side.

She looked at him, taken aback. But when her eyes met his all too calm ones, she knew that he hadn’t understood what she meant. “That’s… not what I m-meant. I think… I mean, it’s different.”

He nodded. “Yes, I know. Our relationship has changed a lot. I am very grateful to have you as a cousin, and for your forgiveness.”

She frowned. “You know that’s not what I mean...” she said. She hadn’t come this far for him to play dumb. If he didn’t feel the same way, he could have to decency to spell it out and be done with it. If not...

He looked down at her with half-lidded eyes. But she couldn’t tell why. She could see frustration, but… frustration over what?

He moved his hands over her forearms, tightening his grip. “ _Hinata_.” He was breathing irregularly. Just barely, but enough to noticed.

Mainly because it matched her own. She felt like her heart might beat out of her chest. Her lungs might explode. It was something about the fact that she had just confessed. Something in the way he was breathing right after it that was getting her worked up. Like he was trying to hold himself back.

She thought he would throw her out, but here he was, physically holding onto her for the first time in forever. Unwilling to let her go. Not even giving her an option, but at the same time, saying her name like that as if to ask her to ask him to… to make him let go.

But maybe she was reading too much into it.

Who could blame her? She was in his room for goodness’ sake, and all she could think, all she could smell, all she could see was Neji. She wanted him so badly. She wanted him to want her. Not Tenten. Couldn’t he see that they would be so much _better_ for each other? Neji was right. They had changed. Changed for the better, and Hinata just wanted it to keep on going and going forever, starting right now. That’s love. That’s what marriages are built on (now she’s really lost her mind thinking of marriage at a time like this). That’s what they could be.

“If you stay any longer, Hinata, this will be inappropriate,” he said matter-a-factly, but barely over a whisper.

“I… I understand,” she said, but she didn’t move away. Nor did she allow him to.

They stayed like that, neither moving. Neither daring to act on the tension building like wildfire in between them.

Hinata closed her eyes and dared to say, “Neji, I… Can you please… I mean… I want you to, but… I don’t want to force you but…”

“What do you want me to do, Hinata?” Neji asked, in his usual tone. Hard facts, to the point.

He wanted her to get to the point, so she did.

“I want you... Neji… I don’t want Tenten to have you for any personal lessons. I want you right now.”

He wiped the tears starting to fall from her eyes and sighed, leaning down. “That’s what you really want?”

She nodded.

Then it began. It all happened so fast. In front of the door then on the bed. No Neji and then Neji right in front of her, just barely hovering over her. “Are you sure?” he asked before touching her any further.

She nodded, but she didn’t dare to move. Was this really happening? His hair fell against her skin, just like in her dreams. She felt his warm breath against her neck.

“Nobody can know,” he said.

She nodded. Of course. Of course, anything.

“How far?” he asked.

She looked up at him. What?

“How far do you want this to go?” he clarified.

“As far as p-possible…” She blushed even harder. “I mean...”

He sat back and waited for her to find the words, and when she couldn’t he gave her a clearer option. “All the way?”

“Um… yes.” She looked up at him, as if asking for permission to ask for that in the first place.

He nodded. “Okay. Tell me at any point if that changes.” He began touching her. Stripping her body of her nightly wear and leaving her skin bare for all to see. But it wasn’t all. It was just him.

He was quick and methodic. Experienced and sure of himself in a way she didn’t want to ask the origin of. Neji was popular. She always figured. She just tried to focus on the here and now. Be grateful that it was her, here and now and no one else.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his lips ghosting over her collarbone moving further and further down.

“You’ve… done this before?” she asked.

He didn’t respond. He just kept with what he was doing. But for all the ways in which he made her heart jump and her body quiver, he never made eye contact with her. Never held her. Never kissed her or touched her like... like they were being intimate.

It was too systematic. Too much like another task to be done, and in that moment Hinata realized that she didn’t want this. No matter how much she wanted him in that way, she never wanted to force him. And that’s exactly what she had done in coming to his room tonight. Forced him. Threatened him. That’s why it was like this now. That’s why he was being so cold, even now with him touching her so intimately.

She ran her fingers through his hair for the first and last time. She just had to before she couldn’t. “N-Neji? I’ve had enough.”

He pulled his lips away from the spot on her abdomen. His hands away from her breasts. “Have I done something wrong?”

“No! Of course not.” She shook her head smiling. She pulled the covers up to cover herself.

He furrowed his brow.

“I’ve done something wrong,” she explained in her quiet voice. “I’ve asked too much of you.” She looked at his forehead. “I’ve used it against you. That was wrong of me.”

He followed her gaze and his eyes widened, just barely, with realization. His hand slowly reached towards the area, running his fingers along it as though it weren’t his own skin, just an unfamiliar material. “Hinata,” he said. “You asked me if I had done this before. I have.”

She shook her head. “You don’t have to tell me.” Especially if it was with Tenten. _Spare me_ , she thought.

He continued. “I have so many times, in my dreams, and in my dreams only with you. I have… wanted you improperly. Thought of you in ways that were inappropriate. Standing above you at night. Watching you sleep. Being alone with you, even in training, was too great of a temptation. But I couldn’t say no. Not because you forced me, but because I wanted to.” He leaned towards her and kissed her, smoothly. Softly. “I am here now because I want to be. Not because you forced me, though I was surprised by your forwardness.”

Hinata blushed. “If you’re sure?”

Neji nodded. “I am. I’m… relieved you feel the same. Right?”

She smiled and nodded.

Their bodies melded together and stayed together all night. Clothing fell to the side of the bed, and soon enough, Neji’s body was bare as well. They covered every square inch of one another, relishing in the feeling of both doing it and being able to do it. To reach out and make contact with the one they had been holding themselves back from for so long. Telling themselves it was an impossibility until now.

They covered every square inch of each other, except the seal.

In the heat of the moment, when Neji had finally entered her, she pulled him closer and kissed his lips, his cheek, and then tried to kiss his forehead.

He pulled away, hard.

She tensed up, he did as well. The motion between her legs began to hurt and so he slowed to a halt. He looked away, looking for something to say. An excuse maybe. An apology. Either way, Hinata didn’t want it. She sensed he was sensitive about it. She should have know not to draw anymore attention to it. She wasn’t thinking.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“No, you were fine. I don’t know why I—”

“It’s normal to have parts you don’t want someone to touch. Shino doesn’t like to be touched anywhere.”

Neji furrowed his brows. “Shino? Why do you know that—”

Hinata smacked herself in the forehead. “I shouldn’t have said that. That was besides the point, I just meant it’s okay. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.” She looked around and saw his forehead protector on his nightstand. It was like a lightbulb went on. “You can cover it back up if you’d like? I could,” she went to reach for his protector.

He grabbed her hand midair.

She watched as her brought it up to his lips, staring down at her in a way he never had before. Or maybe he always had before, she couldn’t tell. “No, it’s fine,” he said. He kissed her forehead. “This is fine.”

She smiled. She reached out hesitantly. She looked at him for permission. “Can I…?”

He nodded. “Please.”

She ran her fingers through his hair, then held his face in between her hands. Then she kissed him, right on his bare forehead. Right on his exposed seal. “I love you, Neji Hyuga.”

He ran his fingers through her long, blue hair, not completely at ease, but somehow relieved by the discomfort of being able to show all of himself for the first time in his life, in this way. “I love you too, Hinata Hyuga.”

**Author's Note:**

> So like, I was actually considering continuing this MAYBE. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but usually with my other oneshots they all felt seriously done. Like finito, but with this one it feels like I could keep going.
> 
> Would anyone want to see where these two go, or maybe find out a little about Kiba and Shino? Or maybe I could do a Kiba/Hinata spinoff (that would probably be a college AU tbh, but it would still be connected in a way. Or I could just do it in-universe maybe)? Idk, the possibilities feel endless with this one. Naruto always gets me going tbh.
> 
> Oh! And if you’d like to see my Naru/Gaa fanfic which was mentioned in this story (shameless self-promo), you can here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/12056202) xD Hey, is it really shameless self-promo if it’s a part of the story? I think not. We writers gotta stay alive somehow in these hard times. Who’s with me?


End file.
